Page 26 of So Savage (Faith Bold #21)

Faith couldn’t sit still and wait anymore. The APB had been active for an hour, and they hadn’t found any sign of him. That meant that he was well outside of the city, probably on an unmarked dirt road somewhere far from civilization. That meant that Jennifer Martinez was most likely dead. She wasn’t going to twiddle her thumbs and wait for Marcus to tell her that they’d found her body in a ditch just like they’d found Delgado.

So, as soon as animal control arrived to pick up Bear, she told Marcus, “I’m going back to Kane’s house. I think there’s something there that might tell us where he’s taking her.”

“Do you really think so?”

She sighed. “I really think I need to do something other than sit on my ass. Do you want to come with me?”

Marcus nodded. "Yes, I'll come with you. I'm not much of a fan of sitting down, either. There's nothing more we can do here anyway."

The three of them left the house, Marcus pausing only to say a quick word to Tranh.

The night had deepened to its full darkness when they pulled onto the street and accelerated back the way they came. The truck’s headlights reflected off of the snow eerily, making it look to Faith like they were in some sort of supernatural horror movie.

Hell, my life is a horror movie, and none of it seems natural.

Kane’s house was lit by the half-dozen emergency units that remained there. Faith wasn’t sure what the point was of having so many officers sitting around doing nothing. Unless they were actively searching for clues to Kane’s whereabouts inside.

They weren’t. As nearly as she could tell, they were standing around and looking important. Her brow furrowed, and she nearly flew off of the handle at them, but she just managed to remain professional.

“All of you, stop whatever you’re doing right now and search this house. We need to know where Kane plans on taking Jennifer Martinez. Look for anything that might yield a clue.”

The officers blinked and looked at Marcus. “She means now,” Marcus offered helpfully.

The officers—to their credit—jumped into gear. Within a minute, they had partitioned the house into sections and begun searching. Faith and Marcus reserved the garage for themselves.

Turk jumped in with his nose to the ground, doing his best to help the humans. Marcus used his flashlight to look for anything that might be hidden or dropped. Faith went to the table that contained the dossiers on the victims. Maybe she’d get lucky and find the location he planned to take Jennifer buried somewhere in there.

Besides the stack of papers that Kane kept on his victims, there were piles of articles related to K9s in law enforcement and the military. Many of them focused on policy changes and scandals. Some of the clippings were highlighted and more than one stained with tears. Kane’s obsession had clearly grown catastrophic. She wondered what had finally pushed him over the edge.

Worry about that later. Find Martinez first.

She moved on from the newspaper clippings to a box of different chemical formulas. Faith didn’t recognize any of them until she read a note in the margin of one page that said TOO UNSTABLE AND INTERACTS POORLY WITH XYLAZINE.

Evidently, these were the chemical formulas of different drugs used to quicken the time of onset. Faith skimmed through them, and when she found no notes that said, TAKE JENNIFER TO THIS EXACT ADDRESS AND HERE ARE THE COORDINATES, she tossed the papers to the side.

She got to her feet and put her hands on her hips, frustrated. He had to have a reason to take her somewhere. Marcus had units searching the forest behind her house, but he wouldn’t take her somewhere that close. He had to have a place picked out. Winging it had nearly gotten him caught on the Air National Guard base. He would have planned this one out meticulously.

She caught Marcus’s eyes and saw the same frustration on his face. He sighed. “I can’t find shit. Nothing.”

She shook her head. “I don’t accept that. There has to be something.”

Her eyes landed on the safe. “Has anyone opened that yet?”

“The safe? Not yet. We planned to have a locksmith come out tomorrow.”

Faith shook her head. “No, we need to get in there now. It’s the last place we haven’t checked. The answer must be in there.”

Marcus sighed. “Faith, I know this is important to you, but—”

Faith’s eyes flashed. “Don’t finish that sentence. Find a way to open that damned safe ASAP.”

Marcus sighed again, but a slight smile came to his face after. “Of course, Special Agent Bold.”

His tone sounded more admiring than sarcastic. He lifted his radio to his lips. “Ralston, can I borrow you?”

A moment later, a uniformed officer arrived. He looked about three years too young to shave, but when Marcus asked him to break them into the safe, he pulled three odd-looking tools from his pocket, and, using a combination of movements that looked random, he opened the door.

Faith stared at him, impressed. He blushed. “My cousin installs safes in homes. He’s taught me a few things.”

“Well, thank you,” Faith said. Here’s hoping you saved a life.

The safe, as expected, contained Peter’s actual guns: an AR copy, a sawed-off shotgun, a handgun, and a compound hunting bow. She felt her hope fade as she felt around for a hidden compartment and looked underneath the boxes of ammo for something, anything.

“Come on, come on, come on !” she shouted. “Damn it!”

“Faith!”

Faith looked up at Marcus, who pointed at the door. She looked at it and gasped. Stickers covered almost every square inch of the door's interior.

Every single sticker sported an image of an old aircraft hangar. Several of the stickers named the airport as Birding General Aviation Airfield.

It was a long shot if there ever was one, but it was better than nothing.

***

The truck bounced and jostled up the hill toward the airport. Birding Airfield had closed thirteen years ago, and just like James Cooper’s property, the structures had been left fallow. Faith immediately recognized the hangar from the stickers, and when they pulled up close, she recognized the Jeep Gladiator.

She pumped her fist with excitement and said into her radio. “Okay, everyone. We all go in at once. If you see Kane, shoot him. Nonlethals first, but have your lethal rounds ready if that doesn’t work.”

Besides, herself, Turk, and Marcus, six of the officers from Kane’s home had joined them. Marcus was taking no chances.

Neither was Faith. Though she was terrified of coming in too late, she understood that Kane could be laying in wait for them, and if he managed to take them out with some darts, then all of their lives would be in danger as well. So, she waited for all of them to be positioned outside of the door.

“Okay. One. Two. Three!”

A few things happened at the same time when they burst into the hangar. First, Faith saw a rope hanging over one of the exposed beams of the roof. One end of the rope was tied in a noose.

Second, Faith saw Jennifer Martinez, hog-tied and struggling against Peter Kane, who was lifting her head into the noose. Kane lifted his eyes to them and cried out, “Shit!”

Turk sprinted for Kane, but Kane pressed a handgun that looked very much like the kind that shoots bullets up against Jennifer’s head. “Call him off or I kill her!” he shouted, turning so that Jennifer stayed in between him and Turk.

The other officers trained their weapons on Kane, but no one risked firing with that gun pressed to Jennifer’s head. Marcus whispered, “Dispatch, we have a ten-sixteen. Need a ten-twenty-two and a ten-twelve, stat.”

Faith assumed he was calling for SWAT. They had sharpshooters who could give them a more secure shot.

If they got here in time. She needed to try to slow things “Hey!” she called. “Peter!”

Kane looked at her, his pupils wide. “Don’t you dare send that dog after me!”

“I won’t. But you know what, Peter, I also know you won’t hurt him.”

“I don’t want to hurt him, but if you give me no choice, I’ll do what I have to do.”

"I won't put him in harm's way. I love that dog. I love him more than anything else on Earth."

Kane’s lips pulled back in a snarl. “Oh yeah? Well, I loved my dog too. You know what happened to him?”

“I don’t. Why don’t you tell me?” She was just stalling for time, but anything she could do to hold out until sharpshooters got here or someone else had a shot was worth the effort.

“He was killed on a mission because some asshole didn’t know how K9s worked. Then they tried to blame me for that. Can you believe that? They tried to blame me for their stupid mistake. They said it was my fault Monkey died.”

Tears streamed down his face now. He whimpered and sniffled, his hands shaking.

“Hey,” Faith said, taking a few steps closer. “I get it. Bosses are assholes. It wasn’t fair what happened to you. But killing innocent people won’t change anything.”

“They’re not innocent!”

“Why? Why is Jennifer Martinez not innocent?”

Kane blinked. He looked at Jennifer as though seeing her for the first time. “It’s just not fair. Why does she get to keep her dog, but I don’t?”

"What happened to you was terrible," Faith agreed, "but she didn't do anything to you herself. That was the bosses. The brass. Trust me, I know how it feels to have the brass make idiot decisions, and then we're the ones who have to suffer for it. I was USMC in Afghanistan. Three tours. Oo-rah, but let's not do it again, if you know what I mean."

Kane released a sound that could have been a chuckle, a sob or both. “I just hate it. It’s not fair. They said it was my fault.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“I know it wasn’t my fault !” he shrieked.

“Okay,” she said, lifting her hands and taking another step. “Okay. I’m just letting you know that I know.”

Kane breathed heavily. His eyes moved around the officers watching him. Jennifer whimpered, and he glared at her, but then looked up at the officers. “You guys are going to kill me the second she dies, aren’t you?”

“If she dies, yes, but if you let her go, then we won’t kill you.”

Kane lowered his head and stuck his lip out in a pout. “It’s too late. I’m going to prison for the rest of my life.”

“It’s a life,” Faith argued. “It’s a lot better than going nowhere at all.” She inched closer, keeping her hands raised and waiting for the moment to strike.

Kane shook his head. "No, it isn't. I wish it was, but it isn't." He gave Faith a smile. "Well, this was going to happen eventually, but at least I got some of them, right?"

Faith lunged forward, but she was too late. Kane fired, and a hole opened in his forehead. Blood, bone, and brain matter sprayed from the back of his head. He slumped in Faith's arms, and she lowered him to the ground.

The police officers immediately rushed to Jennifer to provide first aid and free her from her bonds. Faith looked at Peter Kane’s face and wondered when the last time was that he’d looked so peaceful.

It didn’t happen often that Faith felt any sympathy for a murderer, but when Faith trotted next to her and she thought about how she would survive if Turk was killed, she found herself sympathizing with Peter Kane. Not with his actions, but with the trauma he’d experienced that left him like this.

“It’s all right now,” Marcus said to Jennifer. “It’s over.”

“Yes,” Faith agreed, releasing Peter’s body and getting to her feet. “It’s all right now.”